Before the thing called “the Marvel Cinematic Universe” was a thing, there existed a script for Ant-Man. It was before Iron Man was a thing, it was before The Avengers was even a possibility. In 2006, Edgar Wright was already working on a script. That’s good because that means he cares enough about this character (and this story arc) that he’s been working on it for years and years.

So now, we’re going to recap the story of Ant-Man and what the movie will likely focus on, as well as why you should be excited about the cast and crew involved.

The Story

A long time ago, there existed a scientist named Henry (or “Hank”) Pym. Pym was a brilliant scientist that created an atomic particle (cleverly called the Pym Particle) that allowed him to shrink himself down to a miniscule size. He retains the strength of a normal-sized man, so this tiny superhero can pack a punch. He then creates a mask that allows him to communicate with insects, so he rides ants around and uses them to swarm his enemies. In the movie, we’re meeting Pym as an older man (Michael Douglas) who is a retired hero.

Then we’ll likely meet Scott Lang, a down-on-his-luck former thief. In the comic arc, Lang’s daughter is sick and he must come up with the money to pay these black market scientists to come up with a cure. But how can he steal all this money and get away with it? Lang manages to steal the Ant-Man suit from Pym and begins an adventure to save his daughter. After this adventure, Pym gives Lang the suit permanently, in exchange he uses it for good and Lang then joins the Avengers as the new Ant-Man. Lang is being played by Paul Rudd.

Now, if it’s not enough to be excited about Michael Douglas and Paul Rudd joining the ranks of the Marvel stars, let me tell you why you should be excited for director Edgar Wright.

If you’re not familiar with Wright, he’s directed three movies in what’s called the Cornetto Trilogy (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World’s End). But the film that will convince you that he’s capable of directing a huge superhero movie is Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Similarly to Ant-Man, he crafted a story based on pre-existing material, he incorporated plenty of intense action, and he gave a heartfelt throughline to resonate with us.

When Wright was pitching Ant-Man, he created a demo reel (or “test footage”) of how this size-changing suit would look in action. Below, scope out this footage via someone at some convention that managed to catch it.

As you can see with the test footage, there’s an incredible amount of possibility for fight choreography, in a way that we haven’t seen in Marvel movies. We likely won’t see a “supervillain” in Ant-Man but we can surely expect plenty of big fight sequences where Lang takes out mobs of henchmen.

As more info becomes available, check back here to I Am Your Target Demographic for updated info!